I believe the traditional corporate university, or that of the old-fashioned Learning & Development Team, will morph itself into becoming a ‘Collaboration and Learning’ office of some sort in the not so distant future.
That is, the way in which an organization operates in terms of formal, informal and social learning, connection, exchange, collaboration, and ‘tech’ applications/offerings will see hybrid or hub and spoke partnerships between those that currently own the collaboration technologies with those that own formal and informal learning.
To prepare for the inevitable, there will be the necessary change requirement to update roles in the organization. (combined or not)
I’ve been following with interest the recent and not-so-recent musings concerning this concept via Harold Jarche, Michael Hanley, Dave Wilkins and Jay Cross (here too for another from Jay Cross).
Through past experience, and future leaning, here is my take on the future roles, their skill and description:
| Role | Skills | Description |
| Learning Asset Producer | Tech savvy; learning professional; flexible; nimble; succinct; thinks in nuggets | Takes orders to develop social/informal learning assets (nuggets of learning) but also teaches/assists others to do so |
| Learning Asset Aggregator | Purveyor; critical thinker; independent; social; connected; able to mine content & info | Turns content, information, and seemingly innocuous data into learning nuggets for the org |
| Collaboration & Culture Coach | Communicator; connector; outgoing; listener; driver; generational savvy; open; honest | Drives Learning 2.0 / Work 2.0 culture through 1-1 and group positioning & change mgt |
| Collaboration Producer | Web 2.0 savvy; multi-tasker; believes in & demonstrates partial continuous attention theory; extremely driven | Responsible for synchronous & asynchronous collaboration & learning opportunities via Web 2.0 tools |
| Collaboration & Learning Technology Strategist | Tech savvy; learning minded; change first DNA; unabashedly a futurist | Charts the course for C&L technology vision & is key cog in IT – C&L relationship / output |
| Media Specialist | Tech savvy; learning minded; tool & widget driven; curious; patient; enabler | Connects the technology, tools, widget, application, Web 2.0 dots between C&L Tech Strategist & Producer/Aggregator roles |
| Business Liaison Manager | Relationship builder; people minded; business & financial acumen; learning professional; results driven | Works for and on behalf of the business unit to drive specific requests / leader of C&L efforts within the business unit |
| Operations Manager | Business & financials subject-matter-expert; holistic; open; ‘gets’ Work 2.0 mantra; can see the forest through the trees | COO of C&L organization – ensures formal-informal-social paradigm is properly aligned in terms of governance, output, budget and staffing |
| Collaboration & Learning Analyst | Metrics focused; business acumen; ability to recognize & respond to C&L trends | Brains behind the brawn of all things collaboration & learning consumed / produced |
| CLO (Collaboration & Learning Officer) | Quadruple threat: business savvy; standout learning professional; omnipresent organizational connector; web 2.0/tech pioneer. | CLO enables the ‘Collaboration & Learning Office’ to prosper, in a hub-and-spoke organizational model of business operations. |
A couple of caveats:
- Collaboration & Learning Office does not necessarily have to merge w/IT – partnership is fine
- Formal learning roles don’t disappear overnight – in fact, these roles become hybrid roles over time with those mentioned above
- It’s a work in progress – nothing is set in stone – roles/titles, etc. may change through more thinking, opinion & analysis
